SEO is the way in which your website is made more visible to the search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing…). So with that being said, it makes sense to say that keywords play an important role at all times. You should first understand some of the basics of SEO before you can truly understand the importance of keywords.

SEO Explained

Whenever you want to find a service or product on the Internet you go to a search engine, type in what you want (keywords or a key phrase), then start checking out the results that pop up. So why do those results appear? This happens because of the use of keywords and sites that have optimized their sites for such keywords.

The issue here comes from the fact that so many different websites and businesses are in competition for the same keywords and whoever has the bigger budget wins. This is where being creative and clever comes into play. Being creative and clever enough to target niche keywords rather than that one keyword or phrase can be powerful SEO and can save you all kinds of money.

Choosing Your Keywords

So which keywords should you focus on for optimizing your site? First, you need to consult with whoever is doing your SEO, whether it be in house or not. Whoever is doing your SEO will need to know exactly what your products or services are as well as who your target audience is. The next step is keyword analysis. Keyword analysis is the process in which you see who is ranking for the keyword that you want to target and where and how they are getting success by it. After this is done you can talk about which keywords are going to be easiest to rank for while at the same time what tactics and techniques should be used to beat your competitors with keywords they use.

Once your keywords have been selected and your keyword analysis is completed the next step is placement. At this point if you don’t have an experienced company or individual running your SEO campaign then you should seriously consider investing in one. This can be the most difficult step in the whole scheme of things as Google is consistently changing up their algorithms and this affects how your site will rank as well as keywords. For instance, a couple of years back you could simply fill your site with keywords and anchor texts as well stuff them on any other site and Google liked that, but now doing that type of SEO will get your set punished and you will lose rankings fast. That is why it is important to an SEO professional managing your campaign. They will understand better how Google updates will affect your site.

In short, keywords are the number one way in which people searching on the internet will find your website. Without knowing what keywords your “customers” are searching for, there is no point in pursuing any other SEO. Keywords are the foundation of any SEO campaign.